Africa-Press – Tanzania. The Arusha Lutheran Medical Center (ALMC) has denied claims of keeping a woman’s body after her family failed to clear medical bills.
The move comes in the wake of information that has since gone viral about the Arusha based medical facility holding back the body of Felista Anaeli Kaaya.
Briefing reporters on Sunday, ALMC Director of Clinical Services Dr Frank Madinda deemed such reports as baseless and unfounded.
According to Dr Madinda, the hospital has not received any complaints from the deceased’s next of kin about such allegations.
“No one from the family approached us to lodge such complains, I challenge anyone from Kaaya’s family to come to health facility and be told on the right procedures and collect the body of their loved one,” he clarified.
Dr Madinda revealed that the late Kaaya was admitted at the hospital on August 6 this year for treatment and died on October 8.
But speaking to ‘Daily News’ on Wednesday, a granddaughter to the deceased Vicky Kaaya claimed that her grandmother had been admitted at the health facility for respiratory.
She was under Oxygen as the 67-year old continued to receive treatment, according to Vicky.
“We were supposed to bury her today but we can’t since they are holding her,” she said.
Vicky further alleged that the hospital told them that they owed ALMC 35million, being the cost of treatment and medicine for their loved one.
“They would hear none of it, even when we wanted to give them 12million and title deed first as continued to raise funds for our grandmother,” she explained.
According to Vicky, the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) card issued to the deceased could not cover for medicine and oxygen services.
